‘Just Out Here to Have Fun'

Andrew Berends has lived in town for 20 years, but yesterday was his first visit to the Windsor County Agricultural Fair.
http://www.vnews.com/07092012/9652285.htm

Published 7/9/2012 Fred DePaul demonstrates sheep-shearing yesterday at the Windsor County Agricultural Fair. (Valley News — Ryan Dorgan) ‘Just Out Here to Have Fun' By Sarah Brubeck Valley News Staff Writer Springfield, Vt. -- Through the lens of his camera, Andrew Berends watched two tan oxen try to pull nearly 21⁄2 tons of on a sled across a dirt-covered ring. “What a bazaar concept,” said Berends, 52, of Springfield. Berends has lived in town for 20 years, but yesterday was his first visit to the Windsor County Agricultural Fair. He and his girlfriend Christine DeMar are photo buffs. When at a red light yesterday they saw the signs for the fair, they thought “why not?” “To me this is sort of surreal seeing these animals pull big blocks of cement,” Berends said. “It's Americana at its best. I suppose you could do this in every state.” DeMar reminisced about attending a fair in New Mexico several years back when she saw pigs covered in glitter to help them stand out, but she'd never seen an ox pull. While it was Berends' first trip to the fairgrounds off Eureka Road, it wasn't Fred DePaul’s, who has been shearing sheep for nearly 50 years. DePaul, of Plymouth, Vt., stood on the main stage yesterday afternoon and held a sheep with his legs while holding a pair of shears in his hand. “This is where most people lose it when they first start shearing,” DePaul said. He lifted the sheep's head up so it was no longer between his legs but now resting on his thigh and explained that the sheep's natural reaction to shearing is to kick. And a human's reaction is to often try to stop the kicking. “Before you know it, the two of them are rolling around fighting each other,” DePaul said. “I've always said shearing is like wrestling, but with shearing, every round has a fresh opponent.” The key, however, is to just let the sheep kick, he said, and when the animal realizes nobody is not going to be hurt, it'll calm down. DePaul, who wore a green hat and sported long white sideburns that extended below his ears, took breaks from shearing to tell stories. All the while, the sheep was caught between his legs, periodically kicking at the air. “When I get done with her and take her back, the sheep she's been with won't know who she is,” DePaul said. “She looks different, she smells different.” When he was done and the sheep was free, her dense gray wool replaced by soft white tufts. She lay in a pile at his feet with her head against his leg. Unlike DePaul, it had been her first sheering experience. Nearby, past the smells of fried dough and apple crisp, mud-splattered Tyler Waters, of Springfield, Vt., stepped off his ATV. When he stood, every inch of his ATV was covered in mud, except for the seat. Just a few minutes earlier, Waters, 20, and his ATV had been stuck in a mud pit while another ATV pulled him out with a chain. Of the three mud pits in yesterday's ATV obstacle course, the third one was the largest and the freshest. The Reading All-Terrain Sportsmens Club added the additional pit and a nearby spectator area for the mud splashing this year. Freed from its grip, Waters was contemplating another run. “What do you think about the mud pit?” he asked his father. “Should I go back?” “Well, with the mud pit, you've got to hit the right place,” Glen Waters said. When the emcee announced that a second ATV had been sent down to pull another rider out of the mud, the younger Waters answered his own question. “I'm going to avoid it,” Waters said. Mike McFadden, a 47-year-old Springfield, Vt., man, was stuck in the pit for about five minutes, but when he got off his ATV, he didn't seem to care. “That's all right,” he said as he leaned against another four-wheeler and popped a cigarette in his mouth. McFadden said he'd gladly do the mud pit again, but the next time he was going to steer to the right and avoid the deep ruts in the center. “I'm just out here to have fun,” McFadden said. Throughout the rest of the afternoon, most riders kept to the right of the mud pit to avoid getting stuck, but every so often a rider would hit the center of the deep brown pool and the tires would start spinning. Dan Hadwen, vice president of the Reading All-Terrain Sportsmens Club, was overseeing the third mud hole, and each time a rider got stuck, he used hooked up a chain to pull them out. After one rider got confused on which direction the course went and made a wrong turn that landed him stuck and backward in the pit, Hadwen decided it wasn't worth winding it back up. He left it unraveled on the ground near the mud pit, in easy reach of the next man to get stuck.